


Variations On a Theme

by NewTimelineNewMe



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Doppelganger, Doug Eiffel Needs a Hug, Eiffel is very impressed with how Minkowski and Effiel get along, F/F, Gen, Renée Minkowski needs a hug, Star Shenanigans, Time Travel, s1 Minkowski is not dealing with this well, s4 Minkowski and Eiffel go back to s1 and fuck shit up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:54:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26383708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NewTimelineNewMe/pseuds/NewTimelineNewMe
Summary: “Hey, what year is it?” Eiffel asked the other Eiffel, who was watching them talk with shock.“Um. 2014?” Other-Eiffel squeaked.Eiffel glanced at her. “Hmn. That explains some things.”“It’s 2019.” Minkowski said.~Or~Eiffel and Minkowski get thrown back to season one, way before...well, anything. They decide to help.
Relationships: Doug Eiffel & Isabel Lovelace, Isabel Lovelace & Renée Minkowski, Renée Minkowski & Doug Eiffel
Comments: 64
Kudos: 81





	1. Chapter 1

“Huh.” Eiffel said. Minkowski thought that was an understatement, considering what stood in front of them. “Commander, look.”

“I’m looking,” Minkowski blinked, as if that would clear the air of the doubles. “I’m not quite sure what I’m-“

“Well yeah, them, but look!” Eiffel had floated to the window. She hadn’t noticed at first, the doppelgängers grabbing her attention.

“The star...”

“It’s red again.” He finished.

“What do you mean, again?” The other her interrupted. “And who are you people?”

Minkowski glanced at Eiffel, and she could see them coming to the same conclusion. “We’re star doubles, aren’t we?”

“Seems like it.” Eiffel pouted. “Man, is this was Lovelace felt like?”

“Who’s Lovelace?” Other-Minkowski asked. 

“Doesn’t explain the star, though.” Eiffel mused.

“Or why they don’t know.”

“Look younger too.”

“Don’t laugh, time travel?”

Eiffel considered it. “...Maybe. Didn’t you say time used to loop? Like Lovelace, that one time?”

“Thrown back?”

“Hey, what year is it?” Eiffel asked the other Eiffel, who was watching them talk with shock.

“Um. 2014?” Other-Eiffel squeaked.

Eiffel glanced at her. “Hmn. That explains some things.”

“It’s 2019.” Minkowski said. 

“Waitwaitwait, 2014, have you finished the toothpaste yet?” Eiffel asked, hopefully. 

“I’m asking the questions here.” Other-Minkowski snapped. 

“Please.” Minkowski rolled her eyes. “You don’t even have a weapon. Besides, you want answers, answers I can’t give you if I’m dead.”

“And if we’re doubles all we have to do is wait for the next flare.”

“What he said.” 

“Doubles?” Other-Minkowski asked. 

“Commander, they haven’t even met Lovelace yet.” Eiffel said. She sighed. 

“They haven’t. Stars, how are we gonna- Eiffel.” She cut herself off, grabbing his shoulder. “The dear listeners. The plant monster. _Hilbert._ We can fix it all.”

Eiffel’s eyes widened. “Hera?”

“Hera, too.”

“What.” Her voice chimed. Minkowski didn’t miss the way Eiffel melted at her voice, and Other-Minkowski didn’t either. 

Minkowski knew Hera’s protocols were the only thing stopping her from killing them, but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t feel a small amount of comfort in Hera’s voice as well.

“Eiffel, they haven’t even had the mutiny yet.” Minkowski whispered to him.

“Mutiny?” Other-Minkowski glared.

“Shit, Minkowski...he doesn’t know.” Eiffel said, staring at Other-Eiffel.

Decima. God, that was so long ago.

Minkowski snorted, small, hysterical giggles escaping her frame. ”No, he doesn’t,” She gasped in between laughter. “Oh, Eiffel, I think I’ve finally cracked.”

“At least we’re cracking together.” Eiffel said, trying to be comforting.

“I’m sorry, can we go back? What don’t I know?” Other-Eiffel asked, concerned.

“I’d like to know as well.” Other-Minkowski frowned, staring at her counterpart.

“You’re not here to go all Terminator on us, are you?” Crowed Other-Eiffel nervously.

“Only if you’re really mean.” Eiffel winked. Minkowski hit him.

“We’re not gonna hurt you.” Minkowski corrected. “The paradoxes alone hurt my head.”

“Then you wouldn’t object to getting locked in the observation deck.” Other-Minkowski said.

“Anywhere but there.” Eiffel shuddered. Minkowski could tell he was thinking of Kepler, Jacobi, Hilbert, flashing before her eyes and the gun and death and-

“Minkowski.” Eiffel said gently. “They’re not here.”

“Right.” Breakdown later. Breakdown later, have to be strong right now. “Lock us up, sure. Just not there.”

“Okay, fine. Hera, tell Hilbert to ready the brig.”

“He wants to know why.” Hera chimed. 

“Tell him I’ll explain later.” Other-Minkowski demanded. “Eiffel, make sure they don’t run.”

“Commander, are you sure-“

“Yes.” She cut her Eiffel off. “If this is what they need to believe we’re just as lost as them, so be it.”

“Come on.” Other-Minkowski snapped, gesturing to the door. Minkowski and Eiffel followed, heading down to the glorified broom closet. “Inside.”

Minkowski clambered in, pulling Eiffel behind her.

“We have a camera and audio in here, so don’t try anything.” Other-Minkowski snapped. 

“We won’t, stars.” Eiffel rolled his eyes. Minkowski elbowed him. 

The door shut, leaving them in darkness. Eiffel’s hand shot out, intertwining with hers.

“What?”

“Don’t comment, please.” Eiffel murmured. 

“Any idea what happened?” Minkowski asked instead. 

“No clue. Just like...blinked and I was here.”

“Me too.” Minkowski bit her lip, thinking. “2014...stars. So much has happened...”

“I don’t think they’d take kindly to ‘Hey just f-y-i you all almost die several times and evil space aliens copy your voice and you weren’t the first mission and also Hilb-mf!” Minkowski covered Eiffel’s hands.

“They’re not stupid, Eiffel. Well, maybe 2014-you.”

_”Hey!”_

_”Shush.”_

“If we’re gonna tell them everything, we have to do it gently.”

“I bet Hilbert’s shaking.” Eiffel muttered. 

“We got over it.” Minkowski said.

“Not really. We just got a bigger bad.”

Minkowski sighed.

“I was so angry.” Eiffel admitted. “For a while I wanted to _thank_ Kepler. For making him stop, I mean.”

“I was angry too.” Minkowski admitted. “Then Lovelace came, and I guess...I had to step up. Couldn’t really afford to be angry then.”

“Hey, well, here, Hilbert’s there. And Lovelace isn’t.”

Minkowski snorted. “True. Doubt Other-me would let me get very far on him, though.”

“I’ll hold her back.” Eiffel smirked.

“Please, like you could take me.”

“Fine, we’ll wait until Lovelace comes and she’ll hold past-you back, and I know I can hold myself back, at least, and then you can have at him.”

Minkowski imagined the scenario and grinned. 

Before she could reply, the door swung open to reveal Other-Minkowski looming over them, a scowl on her face. Minkowski dropped the smile from her own and stood up as straight as one could in zero gravity. She held out two pairs of handcuffs, and Minkowski and Eiffel put them on.

“Follow me.” She barked, leading them down to the deck. The red light of the star shines at them, a million times harsher then the blue light they had grown used to.

“I will ask a question. You will answer quickly and honestly. If I find out you’re lying, you get a day without food.” Past-Minkowski ordered. “You will only answer when I ask you, and you will only answer what I ask.” Other Eiffel was standing to the side, Hilbert on the other. To his credit, he didn’t look all that nervous.

“Who are you.” Past Minkowski asked.

“Commanding Officer of the USS Hephaestus station, Renée Minkowski.” Minkowski answered.

She turned to Eiffel. “Who are you.”

“Eiffel.” With a glare from Minkowski, he added, “Fine, Communications Officer Douglas Eiffel, sir.”

“Hera?” Other-Minkowski asked.

“I’m not detecting any changes in their vitals or otherwise. They’re telling the truth.”

“Thanks, sweetheart.” Eiffel said. Other Minkowski slapped him, making Minkowski sit up straighter.

“Don’t _touch_ him.” She snarled. 

“You’re not in a position to be making demands right now.” Other-Minkowski said cooly. “Don’t speak unless I ask you a question.”

Minkowski glanced over to Eiffel, and he smiled weakly at her. At least the other Eiffel seemed a bit worried by the violence.

“Why were you surprised when the star was red?” 

“A few years ago the star turned blue in an astronomical event.” Minkowski answered. Other-Minkowski blinked.

“Hera?”

“No change.”

“What happened when the star...turned blue?”

“We had huge waves of radiation, bug bursts of energy the ship couldn’t take. It wasn’t like anything we saw before, different radiation, different everything. Eventually the storm died down a little and we were able to start repairs.”

“We?”

“Myself and Lovelace.” 

Hilbert turned white.

“Lovelace?” 

“The commanding offer of the previous Hephaestus mission.” Minkowski glanced at Hilbert and smirked.

“...Previous mission?”

“There was a mission before us. It ended in tragedy. Lovelace created a ship out of spare parts from the Hephaestus and left. She meant to go back to Earth. She ended up coming back here.”

“But she-“ Eiffel quieted at her glare.

Other-Minkowski shot a look at Eiffel, turning back to her counterpart. “Why didn’t Eiffel help with the repairs?”

“...Ah. Was kind of hoping you wouldn’t ask that.”

“Well, I did.” Past Minkowski snapped.

“Um, Commander?” Hera chimed in. “There’s an urgent message coming in from Command.”

“What? Eiffel, go check that out.” Other-Minkowski said.

“Yes sir.” Eiffel said, floating quickly out of the room.

“Did you do this?” Minkowski demanded.

“No.” Eiffel said.

There was a buzz of the comms. “Uh. You miiiiight wanna get down here. As in ASAP.”

“What does it say?” Past Minkowski asked.

“Um.” Eiffel cleared his throat. “‘The golden rose is ready for melting. Proceed with designation Alpha. Beware. Five. The Empty Man has awoken.’ I...have no clue what this means.”

Minkowski shot a look at Eiffel, barely able to contain her smile. The empty man, stars.

“Are you sure you didn’t decode it wrong?” 

“No, we’d be seeing like, ampersands and sevens. Whatever this means, this is the message Command wanted us to have.”

“Hilbert. This mean anything to you?” She asked.

“No.”

“What about you two?” She turned to Eiffel and Minkowski. 

“I’m getting another one.” Past Eiffel said over the comms. “Let’s see...’The Andromedas are broken. The northern light should be reversed. Alert. Four. The empty man approaches.’ Okay, did a whole bunch of drugs get legalized while we were up here, because I’m missing out.”

“You two.” Other-Minkowski snapped. “What is this. Did you do this?”

“We didn’t.” Eiffel told her. “Why would we?”

Past Minkowski pinched her brow. “Okay. Okay. Let’s focus on what we do know, namely this ion storm. If they’re trying to warn us about something, these messages aren’t gonna help. So, let’s make sure we don’t fall into the star, okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, sure, uh- oh! One second, another one’s coming through. ‘The frozen pages are blank. Decide what to do with the time that is given to you. Emergency. Three. The Empty Man hungers.’ Uh, commander?” His voice turned higher.

“On second thought, I’m gonna go check the armory.” She spun around, heading to the door.

“I will run security on our airlock perimeters.” Hilbert added.

“I’ll hold down the fort here, check for any other messages. Our Replicas know anything?”

“No. You two...stay here. I’ll see if I can’t find...whatever this ‘empty man’ is.”


	2. The Empty Man (pt. 2)

Eiffel was not having the best of days. He was fine, physically at least, but that was dampened by _their clones which were currently in the observation deck_ , and this damn ‘empty man’ that was plaguing their messages from command.

And also they HAD CLONES. IN THE OBSERVATION DECK. FROM THE FUTURE. FUTURE CLONES. 

So while he may have been fine physically, mentally not so much.

Freaking _clones_! Even weirder, they got along...scarily well, especially if they were supposed to be himself and Minkowski. Finishing each other’s sentences, talking with simple looks. As unnerving as it was, Eiffel was almost impressed. Minkowski seemed to- well, not hate, but strongly dislike Eiffel, if only because of his work ethic. So to see her, even if it was the wrong her, the wrong him, defending him? Backing up his ideas?

Man, and Eiffel was lucky if he got a day without Minkowski yelling at him. 

“Hey Hera, what are our guests doing?” He asked, face resting on the console. He had to stay there, make sure he’d catch any more messages from command. It had been three hours, though, and no new ones had come.

(If you asked, Eiffel was _definitely_ not worried that the empty man had killed all of command. Definitely.)

“They’re just...talking. Want me to patch them through?”

Eiffel considered for a moment. “Yeah, go ahead.”

There was a crackle of sound before their voices came through. 

_”How long has it been? An hour?”_

_”About three.”_

_”Ooo, there’s gonna be a new message soon.”_ His voice sounded playful. Effiel squinted suspiciously. 

_”I’m still not sure why we aren’t telling them.”_

_”It’s funny.”_

_”Not to them.”_

_”It’ll get lost in the...everything else.”_

A sigh. _”Yeah, I guess so. God, they look so young.”_

_”Missing all our burn scars. They’re still tan, too.”_

_”Did you see her reaction to my hair?”_

_”To be fair to her, I remember you saying you’d never cut it. She doesn’t have a Captain to impress.”_

_”Eiffel!”_ He could hear a shove. _”I do not have feelings for Lovelace._ ”

_”Sure, commander.”_

_”I’m married, for stars sake!”_

_”Polyamory.”_

“That’s enough, Hera.” Eiffel said. Listening to them banter- it was too much. Too similar to his and Minkowski’s- too weird to listen to for long. 

The comms door opened with a creak. “Everything’s locked up tight.” Minkowski told him. 

“The sensory alarm system is  
calibrated to its most sensitive setting. If anything other than ourselves moves through the station, we should know about it.” Hilbert assured, although it wasn’t as effective with the terror on his own face.

“And I’ve retrieved two of the  
handguns from the armory, so if and when this Empty Man thing shows up, we should be ready for it.”

“Only two guns? There’s three- five? Technically six of us.”

“Hilbert’s not a trained marksman, I’m not putting a gun in the hand of a civilian just yet. I also don’t trust the doubles further than I could throw them, and Hera doesn’t have hands. It’s you and me, Doug.”

“Oh.” Eiffel tried to sound a lot more excited about that. “The full hoo-ah.”

A tremor ran through the station, and Eiffel looked around frantically, shaking with fear even after it had stopped. “Okay, what the _hell_ was that?”

“Easy, Eiffel.” Minkowski reassured. “We’re hitting the  
worst of the ion winds, that’s our scheduled turbulence. How are you doing, Hera?”

“Acceptable, Commander, although  
certain systems are beginning to show signs of strain.”

“Do you best to keep things under  
control. Let us know if anything goes seriously wrong.”

“Hey, on the plus side at least we  
haven’t had any other messages from Command,” Eiffel pointed out, “So maybe this whole thing has just blown-“

The comms machine began to beep, and Eiffel stared at it, betrayed. 

“You just had to open your mouth, didn’t you.” 

“‘The broken flower is in the vase.  
Don’t listen to your eyes. Danger. Two. The Empty Man sees you.’ Okay, officially now, what the hell? What’s coming towards us? What is this apparently indescribable thing?” Eiffel demanded, brandishing the paper angrily. 

“Don’t freak. I don’t like this any  
more than you do, but we’re still on a space station, eight light years away from Earth. Things can’t just show up on our doorstep.” Minkowski told him.

“You know, Commander, that would be a  
pretty good argument- if we didn’t have a crazy plant monster living in our air vents! Or if we didn’t get those weird whispers when we lost power. Or _time traveling clones in our observation deck_. Honestly, there’s a lot of stuff that goes down around here that really shouldn’t be possible, but here we are anyways!”

“Hera,” Hilbert started, “Is there anything on the approaching vectors of the Hephaestus?”

“No, Doctor, not at the moment.”

“Hera? That wasn’t as confident as I feel it needed to be.” Minkowski ran her hand through her hair.

“Well, the ion winds are interfering  
with my sensory instruments, and my visibility of the airspace around the Hephaestus is down to 81%. Nothing is showing up on my sensory input, but I’m working with blind spots. However, the possibility of an object being nearby is mathematically unlikely.

“Mathematically unlikely’? That’s  
the best that we can do right now?”

“I’m sorry!” Hera snapped, not sounding very sorry at all. “I’m dealing with a rather extreme weather condition here, and a boarding party wasn’t exactly something I prepped for this morning. Visibility down to 56%.”

“Oh, this just keeps getting better and  
better.” Eiffel groaned.

“Umm...’There’s no way out. There’s  
no way out. But there is a way in. Danger. One. The Empty Man shall knock.’”

All three adults looked at each other.   
———————————————————

“...And you didn’t think to _mention_ that it wasn’t real?” Past Minkowski asked, her voice low and dangerous.

Eiffel, way more used to that tone, simply shrugged. “We didn’t wanna spoil the surprise.”

“Spoil the-“ Past Minkowski’s rubbed her hand over her face. “Goddamnit. No, of course not.”

“Hey,” Minkowski but in, “Do you wanna be Renée, or should I?”

That caught Past Minkowski off guard. “What?”

“I’ve been calling you Past me in my head, but I figure it’d just be easier, y’know? So, Renée or Minkowski? Figure I’d let you pick.”

Past Minkowski blinked. “I’ll...Minkowski.”

“Cool. You’ll be Doug, then.” Mink- Renée said, nodding at him. Doug shrugged.

“Sounds good.”

There was silence for a beat. “...Don’t think I’ve forgotten.” Minkowski said.

“Right, of course.” Renée smirked, although she cursed internally- distraction had been the whole reason she proposed the idea right then. 

“...Right.” And with that, Minkowski left the room.


	3. Early Christmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hilbert will be mostly redeemed by the end of this fic, just so you know.
> 
> Tw for temporary character death and blood

Eiffel was freaking out. Sure, it was shoved under several layers of ‘we don’t have time for that’ and a good, unhealthy scoop of denial, but the panic was still there.

He was handling it. 

What he was more worried about, or rather, who, was Minkowski. Renée? No, he was still going to call her Minkowski. 

Eiffel had gotten to read her body language well, and she had been less stressed hanging around Kepler then when her double was in the room. 

God, baby Minkowski was so easy to read. Which, now that he thinks about it, makes sense- she hadn’t been trying to hide anything for nearly as long as his Minkowski had been. Plus, Eiffel was pretty much an expert on her body language by now. He could still see the shards of disbelief hanging around her frame, could practically hear her denial. 

He still hadn’t told Eiffel about Decima- the two of them hadn’t mentioned anything Hilbert-related at all, actually. Unless Lovelace counted, but he didn’t think so. Speaking of, Eiffel knew there was no way he was just going to brush this off, not when he could tell himself and Minkowski knew all of his gritty secrets. Hilbert couldn’t afford to let them tell Baby Commander, so he would have to do something...drastic. Eiffel was honestly looking forward to another half baked murder scheme. 

Speak of the devil, and he shall float through the door.

“Doc!” Eiffel said cheerily, causing Minkowski to try and crane her neck around to see the door. She was tied to his back, and while she had the much better view (in Eiffel’s opinion) of the star, that means she couldn’t see the door. “How’s the intricate murder plot going?”

Hilbert stared at him. “...What.”

“The murder plot!” Eiffel repeated. “I know you have one. After all, we know about Decima-“ Hilbert flinched. “We know about Lovelace, Fisher. Hui, Lambert, and gosh I always forget- Fourier, right? We know you killed them. We know everything, Doctor _Selburg_.” He spat the last sentence. 

“We’re too much of a risk.” Minkowski added. “Too much of a liability.”

“How’d you take care of Hera this time?” Eiffel asked. The AI wasn’t responding to them earlier, but now he recognized it was because she had most likely been prevented from doing so. “Same old override protocols?”

“I can’t imagine Command’s going to be too happy with you murdering the only extraterrestrial life you’ve found.” Minkowski said lightly.

Hilbert paused for a moment, but shook his head and moved forward. The good doctor’s body language was harder to read then Minkowski’s, but even he couldn’t mistake the determination that laced his frame. 

“Well,” He tried to cover up the shaking in his voice, “At least we’ll get to know if we’re doubles, right?” 

Minkowski’s head brushed up against his. “No, no, I’m not just going to sit here and let him kill us!”

“Unless you have a better plan,” Eiffel eyed Hilbert, who was now almost right next to him, “I don’t see-“

“You died!” Minkowski blurted. “In our timeline, you died, and we can change-

And that was the last chip they had, but it wasn’t enough-

-and then there was screaming-

-and Eiffel was choking-

-he couldn’t breathe-

and then 

there 

was 

silence.  
———————————————————  
Dying sucked, Eiffel could now say from experience.

It didn’t help that he woke up in a body bag, not when he was terribly claustrophobic, but breathing through his badly damaged throat was a whole, other level of hurt. 

He really was a double, then. 

Great. 

He coughed, feeling worse then the first time he had smoked, and looked around to see Minkowski- younger Minkowski, that was- and other Eiffel staring at him in horror.

“Glad to see you’re not dead.” Eiffel whispered, his throat twinging at the action. “That sucked.”

Other Eiffel made a strangled sound from the back of his throat. Minkowski didn’t look much better. They both just kept...staring at him.

“Where’s the doc?” He asked, unzipping the bag the rest of the way. A second bag caught his attention, and he ripped his way out, using the bed to propel himself over. Eiffel unzipped it frantically, staring at Minkowski’s bloodstained throat and neck. 

He pulled her out of the bag, an act made way easier by the lack of gravity.

“Minkowski,” He whispered, “Hey, Commander.”

“...Doug.” A voice behind him said. He didn’t pay attention to it.

He shook Minkowski a little bit. “Hey, get up.”

“Doug.”

He shook her again, and her head rolled to the side. “Get up. You- there’s a fire, and I need your help.” She didn’t respond. “I need you to kill a spider.” Eiffel tried. “Kepler’s going to be mad at you. Hilbert wants to try the napalm again.” He shook her again. “You have to get up, or I’ll smoke again. You- I’ll read that journal you scribble in every night. I’ll-“

There was a hand on his shoulder, and Eiffel jerked away. He shook Minkowski, growing frantic. “I’ll tell you more about Anne. You still have to tell me about Dominik, I’m sorry I kept locking you and Lovelace in rooms together. You- I- Please, you have to wake up.”

“Doug. _Eiffel_.” The hand moved and then they were grabbing his shoulders, twisting him around, despite his best efforts to keep his eyes glued on his commander. “She’s gone.”

He shook his head vehemently, ripping himself away from the person. Gone where? She was right there.

“Eiffel, she’s gone.”

He shook Minkowski again. He had come back, why wouldn’t she?

Wouldn’t she?

“She’s gone.” 

Eiffel blinked, releasing tears from his eyes. He looked at the person who had grabbed them- Past Minkowski, he realized. Over in the corner, he saw other-him crying as well. 

He reached back over to Minkowski- she wouldn’t want to miss this. She- she hated being left out of things, Eiffel had promised to keep her in the loop.

He shook her again, and she started coughing. 

Eiffel shrunk back from her, giving her room to breathe. She pushed him further away, coughing. A second later, she opened her eyes to see him, most likely crying, and opened her mouth in a small ‘o’ of surprise before bursting into tears of her own, grabbing him and pulling him close.

“I thought- I _saw_ -“ She sobbed, and Eiffel held her tighter.

“On the plus side, I don’t think they’ll stop you from punching Hilbert anymore.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


	4. Team ‘What’s Wrong with Handcuffs’ makes a return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will take a little longer to come out, but it’ll be extra long to make up for it ;)

“You don’t have to do that.” Renée said hoarsely. “Whatever you’re thinking of doing to him. We can tell you everything he knows.”

Minkowski turned around to look at her. She was working her fingers through Doug’s hair, who was asleep in her lap. Her eyes were still puffy and a little glazed over. 

“You realize what you’re saying, right?” Minkowski asked. She was really starting to doubt this person was her. 

“Yes, and I stick by it.” Renée huffed. “I’ve grown pretty used to death threats.”

“This wasn’t a threat!” She shouted. Doug’s face scrunched up, and for a second she felt bad. “This wasn’t a threat,” she said, lowering her volume. “He...killed you.”

“Doesn’t mean I want him to die.” Renée told her. Doug murmured something. “Yeah, team what’s wrong with handcuffs. Now, shush, I can’t remember the last time I saw you sleep.”

“Does he not sleep on the job anymore?” Minkowski tried to joke. It fell flat, and Renée sighed.

“Not exactly.” She looked at him and resumed stroking his hair.

A question that she had had since they first appeared popped in her head, and so she asked without a second thought, “What happened to you guys? I mean- your hair, and I’ve never seen Eiffel so sad- just, what happened?” She wanted- no, needed to know. Minkowski had always hated being left out of the loop, and now she may have been in a different loop entirely. 

Renée snorted. “Long story. A lot, is the short version.”

“Tell it to me, I’ve got time.”

Renée sighed. “Eiffel should be in here too. I want Doug to get more sleep…” She bit her lip in thought. “Should probably get Hilbert, too.”

“What?” Minkowski looked at her in disbelief. “For fuck’s sake, why would we do that?” 

Doug stirred at her outburst, and Renée pulled her hand away, guiding him to sit next to her. “Wha’s goin’ on?” He asked.

“I’m trying to think of the best way to tell them without Hilbert murdering us again.” She told him, and he blinked sleepily. 

“Oh. Um, we could just tie ‘m up, right?” Doug suggested. 

“No! We are not talking with Hilbert!” Minkowski protested. 

Doug shrugged. “Tell ‘m after he’s developed his character more.”

“Absolutely not.” She refused. 

“If it’s him you have problems with we can tell him separately.” Doug offered. 

“That’s not the issue, here.” Minkowski said.

“It’s not like we stayed dead.” Doug rolled his eyes. 

“I don’t think that’s what she’s worried about, Doug.” Renée said to him. 

“Of course that’s not why- Hera, what do you think? I’m not the insane one here, right?” Minkowski asked.

“No, Commander. I personally think we should kill him.” The AI chimed. 

“Woah woah woah,” Eiffel’s eyes darted around the room as he came in. “Who’re we killing?”

“Hilbert.” Minkowski told him.

“No.” Renée told him.

“Uh,” Eiffel responded, because what else do you say when your Commander says two, contradicting things, and who would be more likely to kill him if he didn’t agree. “Uh,” He said again, deciding to go with the version that seemed to like him, “Yeah, let’s not do that.”

“What!?” Minkowski exploded, and Eiffel flinched back. 

“I don’t know. I don’t want to kill him.” Eiffel said. “What’s wrong with handcuffs?”

Renée snorted. 

Doug perked up. “Yeah, I’ve been on team ‘What’s wrong with handcuffs’ since our very own Christmas special.”

“Like I said earlier, anything you want to know we can tell you.” Renée promised.

“Not like anything worked, anyways.” Doug rolled his eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the only thing that got our very own Doctor Doolittle to spill the beans was...well-“

“I threatened to shoot Doug in the head if he didn’t.”

“...What the fuck.” Minkowski uttered. 

Renée shrugged. “I mean, it worked.”

“It did work, although for a second I really thought it wouldn’t.” Doug nodded. 

“And you’re just...not upset about this?” Eiffel asked, bewildered.

“It was like, what, five years ago?” Doug shrugged. “I got over it.”

“Why _did_ that work?” Minkowski asked. “Like, why is Eiffel so important that it made Hilbert spill?”

“I want to be offended by that, but I’m too curious.” Eiffel agreed.

Doug winced. “You...might wanna sit down.”


	5. Boiling Point (pt. 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Doug can go a little feral. As a treat.

Eiffel sighed. “That’s always a good way to start things.”

“...Yeah. Um, actually...?” He looked to Renée, who sighed, rolling her eyes. 

“You owe me one.” She turned to him, an odd intensity in her eyes. “I- fuck, I’m just going to say it. You’re part of an...experiment? Sort of? Called Decima. Hilbert is in charge of it. It’s this sort of- I don’t really know-“

“Injected me- us? With a supervirus with hopes we’ll become the next Superman, never mind the four people who died from it before.” Doug cut off tiredly. 

There was a pause as Minkowski and Eiffel processed this.

“What.” 

“What.” Minkowski agreed.

“He can turn it dormant.” Doug reassured them. “Pull some hand wavey science bullcrap, but he’ll be a little bitch about it.” Doug glanced at Renée, a memory rapidly coming to his mind. “The comms.”

Realization dawned on her face. “Shit.”

“Same story from last time?” He asked. She considered this.

“Maybe? Is there a way for us not to kill him?”

“For Cutter? I don’t think so. Hilbert has his orders, yet is expendable enough for them to justify killing him. Decima’s not going anywhere, we know that.”

“I just want to try and avoid lying even more. You remember how well that worked out last time.”

“Okay, it was not my fault the tape recorder was broken! I didn’t know it was!”

“Not the tape recorder, genius.”

“You spilled Hilbert to Cutter too.”

“That was Hera. You spilled the news about the transmissions.”

“Hi, hello, yes, what?” Eiffel interrupted. 

The two doubles looked at him, having forgotten for a moment where they were.

“...Don’t worry about it.” Renée turned to Doug. “Let’s just use the same story.”

“But-“

“We won’t slip up this time.”

“And the S1-5 crew?”

“We’ll deal with it when we get there.” She decided. 

“What’s S1-5?” Minkowski asked.

“Kepler, Jacobi, Maxwell. They were on the Urania, picked me up, dropped me off, and didn’t leave.” Doug explained.

“‘Picked you up’?”

Doug winced. “Ah. Could we maybe...not delve into that?”

“What? Why not?” Minkowski asked.

“Later, I promise. Just not right now.”

“Okay...? Tell us more about this crew.”

“Well, for starters, none of them were straight...”

Doug explained the basics of the crew, Kepler being an egotistical maniac who’s way too obsessed with whisky, Maxwell being a geek with a baby-crush on Hera (Hera spluttered when she heard that, and Doug couldn’t contain his grin) and Jacobi being a trigger happy loyalist who was more handsome then Doug knew what to do with most days. 

“They were all vaguely horrific people.” Doug added. “But none of them seemed to care.”

“They has their orders.” Renée told the group. “Those orders just happened to coincide with our deaths.”

“Technically. They didn’t really care if we lived or not- just cared about the Dear Listeners.”

“The who?” Eiffel asked.

“Oh, right. Keep forgetting you don’t know about, like, anything. Uh, those music transmissions you’ve been getting? Yeah. Messages. From aliens.”

Eiffel let out a low whistle. 

“Don’t get too exited.” Renée grumbled. “They’re so fucking vague.”

“Unnecessarily so.” Doug agreed.

“Your fault you can’t speak English.” Renée rolled her eyes.

“I speak English just fine!” Doug protested. “It’s E.T. who decided to copy me.”

“Who else would they have copied? Your Spotify streams were most likely the first contact they had with human life, and you just had to ruin it with pop-culture.”

Doug places his hand in his chest. “I’m hurt.” He pouted.

Renée rolled her eyes. “Oh no,” She said monotonously, “How ever will I live with myself.”

“Copying him?” Minkowski asked. 

“Your transmissions? The Dear Listeners picked them up, learned English through them. Course, that led to more pop culture and less sentences that actually make sense.”

“And yet, they want us to ‘figure it out, brainiac.’” Doug sighed. “The closest we got was when I tricked Lovelace into poisoning me-“

“You what!?” Eiffel and Minkowski both said.

“I had no part of that.” Renée grumbled. “It was dumb and irresponsible, and we didn’t even get anything out of it.”

“But it did work.”

“But it almost killed you!”

“I mean...that does happen a lot.” Doug shrugged.

She sighed. “I swear, one of these days you’re going to end up killing _me_.”

“Well, now that doesn’t stick, so you’ll be right back up to kiss my ass.”

“How many times is ‘a lot?’” Eiffel asked, looking very concerned.

“Uh...” Doug started counting on his fingers. “Have you had the week long strapped to the bed hallucinative fever trip yet?”

“Um, yes.” Eiffel told him, although it came out more of a question.

“Cool. Then, like, seven times.”

Eiffel blinked.

“Yeah, they really shouldn’t have sent me up here.” Doug grinned. “Although to be fair, uh, two of those could be called dramatizations.”

Renée frowned, looking up from her own fingers. “I counted five.”

“Hilbert, that spider-“

“You didn’t almost die from that.” Renée scoffed.

“ _That spider_ ,” Doug repeated louder, “Decima, the bomb, decima, the...yeah, and Lovelace. That’s seven.”

“Huh. Yeah, I guess so.” Renée glanced at him. “That seems like a lot.” 

Eiffel was turning paler with every passing second, so Doug assured him, “Like half of those were Decima, and we’re getting rid of that. Then Lovelace, and, yeah, that was mostly an accident. With the spider, I guess- wait. Have you had the spider yet?”

“No.” Minkowski said.

“Then you don’t know about the lab.” Doug summarizes. He turned to Renée, shock growing on his face. “Commander, they don’t know about the lab. He still thinks he’s crazy for hearing voices.”

“Oh. _Oh_ , stars.” 

“That’s it, you two are officially children. Babies.” Doug announced. Minkowski went to protest this, but Doug cut her off. “What’s the worst thing that’s happened to you so far? Hera shutting down for what- a few hours? A solar flare that rocked a little harder than you thought?”

“I was blinded for a few days once.” Eiffel said.

“Oh! I remember that, it sucked, but you want to know what sucked more? Getting jettisoned into deep space and making seventy days of rations stretch two years!” He was starting to yell. “Or- or having fucking aliens copy your voice and you almost kill yourself trying to get more information and it _doesn’t even work_!” 

“Doug-“ Renée said, but he was on a roll.

“Not your flavor? How about getting your closest secret forcibly outed? Or watching one of your friends get shot in the head right in front of you?”

“ _Eiffel._ ” Renée grabbed his shoulder, and he pushed her away.

“No, Commander. They wanted to know, so I’m telling them.”

“Eiffel, please.” He glared at her, but her face was soft, and Doug realized he was crying. 

He scrubbed his eyes and turned away. “I’m fine.” It sounded hollow, even to him. His head buzzed, and his throat was sore from yelling. 

Renée was saying something, but he couldn’t hear her over the buzzing. 

“I’m going to Lovelace’s.” He muttered, floating to the door. He paused at the doorway, glancing back. “Sorry.”

Doug left the room, floating down to the dorms. He opened Lovelace’s door, grabbing her sleeping bag from a cabinet and strapping it down. He was moving mostly on autopilot, and even when he was strapped in, eyes close, he found it hard to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

“This could have gone better.” Renée sighed. “But we’re not dead, I guess, so that has to count for something.”

Eiffel was still caught up on Doug’s rant, his words ringing through Eiffel’s mind. Minkowski was too, but she was doing a slightly better job of not hanging there, jaw dropped.

“He’s just tired. We both are.” Renée explained further. She took a deep breath, slumping her shoulders. “Hera? Any messages from Cutter?”

“No.” The AI was putting as much passive aggressiveness as she could into that one word, and nobody needed to know if she was actively paying attention to Doug as he strapped himself in. 

“Good. I don’t remember if we called him, or if he called us, but keep an eye on the phone anyways. If you have the power to do that, that is.” Renée added.

“...Why wouldn’t I?” Hera asked, her curiosity winning over her distrust. 

“Oh. Right.” This ship wasn’t falling apart at the seams. “Never mind. He’s just going to tell us to shoot Hilbert- which we are _not_ doing, and renew our mission. Nothing to miss. Eiffel, any music transmissions you get, try and backtrace the signal. Minkowski, there’s this new type of radiation panel we have to install- I’ll show you later. Hilbert can stay in the deck, we’re still not killing him but I don’t trust him right now either. Jacobi, you...can...not exist. Right.” 

She blinked, that having thrown her off a little. Minkowski was glaring at her, and she recognized the, “ _Breath-and-you’re-dead-who-do-you-think-you-are-bitch-I-will-end-you_ ” look, as Doug has dubbed it, and Lovelace has cut over him with a, “ _It’s called a glare, Eiffel._ ”

“Or we can follow you, if you’d take charge.” Renée added. 

Minkowski’s look turned into one of annoyance. Doug also looked shocked that she’d say something like that, but let’s be real, Renée wasn’t afraid of Minkowski in the way he was. She never would be. 

“I have more questions for you.” Minkowski said. 

“Yeah. Okay.” Renée sighed. She supposed that was fair, really. “I’d rather you ask me then Doug.”

“Okay.” A determined look came across her face. “Tell me everything you know about this Decima.”

“Not much, is the short term. Long term, it’s a virus that starts out small and increases the symptoms over time until you’re watching one of your best friends cough up way more blood then a human ever should.” Renée took a small, grounding breath. “It’s not exactly happy fun times.”

“...Oh.” Minkowski looked apprehensive. “And you’re sure we don’t want to kill Hilbert?”

“Yes.” Renée sighed. “I’m sure.” 

“What’s a rough timeline of your events?” Minkowski asked. “What happened when, that type of thing.”

“Well, we had the Christmas Mutiny. The we found the lab...Lovelace came, then the star went blue, S1-5 took control, the other contact event, the second mutiny, then Lovelace’s loop...I think that’s everything big.” Renée bit her lip, thinking. 

“So Hilbert revolted to you, too? Did you also get...future doubles?”

“Heh, no. Doug showed him some of the music, the ones we thought were coming from Earth? He figured out it wasn’t actually coming from Earth, but instead Aliens, assumedly.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. The only reason we didn’t die was Hilbert’s own stubbornness for ignoring people and Doug’s half-assed plan to smoke.”

“Just...uh...out of curiosity, did the plan...work?” Eiffel asked. Renée was _absolutely_ sure that was _just_ out of curiosity. 

“I’m not stupid, Eiffel.” Renée glared playfully. Realization struck her, and a small grin grew on her face. “Wait, you guys still have cigarettes! Oh my god, this could be the best thing to happen to us in years.”

“Uh,” Eiffel was making that face that meant he had bad news and didn’t want to share. “I only have one left.” 

“Oh. Right then.” Renèe paused. “Good thing we didn’t mention anything, I guess.” 

“...I still have some.” Minkowski mentioned, biting her lip.

“Right! The uh, the ones you took! You wouldn’t haven’t gotten rid of them yet.” Renée remembered. 

“You haven’t?!” Eiffel asked.

“Not because I was going to give them back.” Minkowski snapped. “I just...haven’t had a change to flush them yet.”

Renée knew that was a big fat lie, but it’s not like she was going to call Minkowski out on it. 

“I am going to change their hiding spot, now.” Minkowski added. “I’m still not giving them back.”

Eiffel pouted but said nothing.

“This is great. Thank you.” Renée smiled.

“You’re really going to let him do this?” Minkowski asked, not maliciously, but genuinely curious.

“I’d do pretty much anything to make him smile, nowadays.” After a brief pause, she added, “He’s the only one I have left.”

———————————————————

“Um... 558.” Eiffel said.

Minkowski smiled. “Shows of courtesy and polite queries are an efficient way to gain time necessary to strategize.”

Eiffel groaned. Doug glanced at him, his hair still messy from sleep.

“What’s goin’ on?”

“He has a bet with me.” Minkowski said smugly. “He doesn’t believe I’ve memorized the whole of Pryce and Carter.”

Doug snorted, shaking his head. “You won’t win.”

“No,” Eiffel denied, “There’s no way she knows the whole thing.”

“I wouldn’t count on it.” Doug told him. “But good luck.” He patted the other man’s shoulder, floating out of the room. 

“Commander.” He announced. “You are never going to believe this.”

“What?” She asked, glancing up from her book. “Lovelace here early?”

“Huh? No. The Pryce and Carter bet has started.” 

The tips of Renée’s ears turned red. “...Oh.”

“Oh? Oh? That’s all you have to say about the greatest moment of my life?” Eiffel cupped his hands to his chest. “I am wounded.”

“Oh, what a shame.” 

They could hear Eiffel shout, “739!” In the background. 

“Can’t wait until he finds 555.” Doug teased. 

She glared at him. “Don’t. mention. anything.”

“Commander, I would _never_.”

“Fine,” Minkowski schooled her face into a neutral position. “But if you tell him, I’ll tell him you’ve also memorized the book.”

He looked shocked. “You wouldn’t.”

“No, of course not. As long as he doesn’t hear a word about 555, understand?”

“Sir, yes sir.”

Renée paused. “Are we going to talk about that?” Doug froze. “We don’t have to, not right now, but we should.”

He began to give the door longing looks. “I- I’m sorry.” He started.

“I’m not the one to apologize to, here. It’s...they pushed, and you pushed back. Was it a little harsh? Probably, but so were they.”

“The way she looks at me,” Doug started, “It’s like...I had just forgotten that look. Seeing it again- well. I’m not the same person- well, not _mentally_ the same person. You’d think they’d realize that.”

“Mhm.” She agreed, knowing that that was what he needed right now.

“I’m just...waiting for the other shoe to drop. Or for her to go all...Muntz on me.”

“From...Up?” Renée asked.

“I’m offended you didn’t get that right away. It’s _Up,_ Commander.”

“Yeah, but- there’s no other shoe coming. You know that, right?” She steered the conversation back. 

Doug shrunk, obviously hoping that she would take the bait. “I- yeah, I know.”

“Really? That didn’t sound like you knew.” Doug shrugged, so she added, “Eiffel, it’s us. Anything they’d plan we’d be able to predict anyways, but that doesn’t matter because they’re _not planning anything_. Okay?”

“Okay.” Doug agreed slowly. 

“Okay. Good.” She released his arms and backed away a bit. “Now you should go get some more sleep. I can’t remember the last time you got a full eight hours.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Isabel Lovelace wasn’t quite sure what she was expecting when she walked out of her shuttle-
> 
> Well, no. She had been expecting Earth, for one.
> 
> What she wasn’t expecting, however, were two sets of identical twins and Elias Selburg.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally huh, fhew has it been awhile. Stuffs been crazy at home, so I’m sorry for the later update! Next one should come sooner, and until then you can imagine Lovelace in the middle of all this chaos!

Isabel Lovelace wasn’t quite sure what she was expecting when she walked out of her shuttle-

Well, no. She had been expecting Earth, for one.

What she wasn’t expecting, however, were two sets of identical twins and Elias Selburg. 

Or for one set to act like they’re best friends with her. To know about her bomb. 

To know about her crew.

Sure, they weren’t prancing around talking about them, but they made it pretty obvious. After all, they knew about Selburg.

Hilbert. Right. 

_”I know he deserves it, Lovelace, but you need to back down.”_

_”You don’t know shit.”_

_”I know more then you’d think.”_

Renée had given the correct answer to Lovelace’s question. So. They really did replace her mission, just like that. 

She was standing in Lambert’s room. None of his things were there. 

There wasn’t any reason for it to be, and yet she still felt like crying. 

———————————————————

Minkowski was staring at her, and it was starting to get on Renée’s nerves.

“Yes?” She finally snapped.

Minkowski opened and shut her mouth. “Doug.” She settled on. “He- He said it right.”

“What do you- oh.” Renée realized that from the perspective of the other woman, Doug had been saying Min _cow_ ski since mission start. “Oh, yeah.” 

Minkowski was still staring at her, and she clocked in on the expression of disbelief. “He said it right,” She repeated. 

Renée thinks back to that discussion. Back to the hurt look on Doug’s face, the alarm that meant a week without a reference. The first time she heard him say it correctly. 

“Yeah,” Is all she can say. “Yeah, he did.”

———————————————————

“She’s not here early, is she?” Renée asked, staring in the direction of Lovelace’s room.

“Uhm. I don’t think so?” Doug said.

“There’s no reason for her to be. Right?”

“Yeah.” There was silence for a moment before he turned to her and said, “Why do you think they sent us?”

“What?”

“The Dear Listeners. Why do you think they sent us?”

Renée thought for a moment. “I guess I didn’t really consider it.”

“Think this is the ‘communication’ they were pushing for?”

“I guess that makes sense. But why us? What does this...accomplish?”

Doug sighed. “I’m not sure. Hence, my asking you.”

“Right.” 

There was another lull in the conversation.

“You said my name wrong,” Renèe blurted. “The other you. I didn’t- just...thanks. Is what I’m trying to say. For- yeah.”

Doug smiled, but it wasn’t happy. “You shouldn’t have to say that. I- you shouldn’t have had to dig up your- you know.”

“Dark and foreboding past?” She teased. “Horrible childhood trauma?” Doug looked horrified, so she quickly added, “Joking, Eiffel, I’m joking. And...thanks.”

———————————————————

“So.” Lovelace said again.

“So,” Renée responded.

“The future.”

“Yep.”

“Five years.” Doug confirmed. 

“Then you’d know...”

“Pretty much everything about everything, yeah.” He agreed again. 

“You’ll have to forgive me, then, if I still don’t trust you right away.” She glared. 

“We didn’t really expect you to.” Renée nodded. “Shock, and all.”

“Quite the...shock, yes. That’s one word for it.” Lovelace sighed. “The others, then. You from...now?”

“Mn.” Renée hummed. “We- Doug and I, that is, still aren’t sure why or how.”

“And you’ve been here what, a couple of months? Not a very...proportionate work to time ratio, is it?”

Both of their faces grew stony, and Lovelace marked that as a touchy subject.

“Alright, sheesh, forget I said anything.” She sighed, eyes flickering between the two. 

“Where’s Minkowski and Eiffel?” Doug asked, changing the flow of conversation.

“I’m not sure. They trust us, however vaguely, enough to not worry about her,” She gestured to Lovelace, “The way we did.”

“Yeah, Christmas put a big headstart on our redemption arc.” Doug said, his eyes flickering to Lovelace then going crosseyed with a questioning end.

Renée shook her head minutely. They wouldn’t tell her about the alien thing, not yet. She may hate them for it later, but it’s too big of a factor for them to drop now. 

Doug nodded in understanding, and began to chatter away about something or another with Lovelace- he was really good at that, actually- and Renée just leaned back a bit, trying to figure out what would come next.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cigarette talks and outranking on a technicality.

Doug knows he looks like a fish out of water, jaw hanging open, but all he can do is stare. 

“You - You didn’t get rid of them?” Is the first thing that comes out of his mouth. 

“Don’t give me that look.” Renée scoffed playfully. “I got rid of them eventually.”

“Aw.” He pouted. “What tipped you over the edge?”

“The-” She imitates an explosion with her hands. “Did you know Lovelace can’t smoke?” 

“I’d love to hear that story one day.” He smiled. “Where is the cap, anyways?”

“Her room, I think. I can’t imagine what this must be like for her.”

“Yeah, cause-”

“But, we’re getting sidetracked. Come on, Officer, you’ve got a priority one cigarette waiting for you.”

A few minutes later he was standing outside a room that was used for one thing or another, vibrating with excitement. Eiffel was there too, wearing a similar expression. 

“Alright, try not to burn my station down this time.” Renée said with a smirk, handing out air canisters and cigarettes to the two. “Have fun, kids.” 

The door shut behind them, and Hera began to vent out the air. Uncomfortably reminded by the only other time she’d done that, he slipped on his mask with a hurry. 

“Right, let’s see if I’ve still got it.” Doug sighed, flicking on the lighter with an eased practice. They didn’t immediately burst into flames, so he considered it a win. “If I get sucked through an airlock, Hera, I’ll be very upset.” He teased. 

“What - Why would I do that?” She asked. Eiffel was staring at him oddly too.

“Your...fire suppression systems. Gives you the power to override your protocols?” He explained. He was met with another blank look. “Ah, shit, you’re not there yet. I was teasing. Hera would’ve - that would’ve been funny.”

“I would never do that.”

“I know, babe, I know. Sorry.” Doug rolled his eyes at his own mistake. Just- it was easy to forget. When he was just hanging out with Minkowski, it was easy to forget.

He lit his cigarette and passed the lighter to Eiffel, who flicked it on and lit his own. 

“Everything...good?”

“Hmn? Oh, yeah, I guess.” Doug half-answered, staring at the glowing end. 

“It's just that- well, you’re kinda just...staring.”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess so. I- I just haven’t seen a cigarette in over,” He sighed, “Thousand days I think?”

“Thous- aren’t you home by now?”

“Ho- heh.” Doug felt a small grin growing on his face. “Home. Ah man, I forgot I had hope in that.”

Eiffel started to look horrified. 

“Look, dude, we’ve been dead for- what, a year now? To the people on Earth. Even if we could stop all the Winter Soldiers coming for our asses, they’re Obadiah’s all the way down. Home- it’s a far off hope. Like...Bolt, chasing down Penny. You can wish, hard as you’d like, but at the end of the day, you’re just a normal dog.”

“But- what we’re doing here. Isn’t- that’s important, they wouldn’t just-“

Doug snorted. “Wouldn’t they?”

“What do you mean by dead, anyways?” Eiffel asked the words swimming to his mind along with all the implications they brought. He didn’t like any of them.

Doug winced. “Um, did I say dead? I totally didn’t mean- um-” Eiffel was staring at him unimpressed. “Okay, fine, Goddard Futuristics may have taken a...few liberties on how successful our mission was going. Explosion-wise.”

There was silence for a moment, neither of the men having anything to say. 

“You can be upset, it’s okay. The Commander and I were pretty frickn’ upset, considering she had to hear it from her husband’s secretary.”

Eiffel scrunched his face in confusion. “Minkowski’s married?”

“Min _kov_ ski.” Doug snapped.

“...Sorry?”

“It’s pronounced Min _kov_ ski.” He glared. 

There were a few seconds of tense silence.

“Min _kov_ ski’s married?” 

“Apparently!” He brightened. “Oh- er, don’t tell her I was the one who told you. I’m not sure if she’d care or not, but I prefer having all my limbs.” 

“Would Renée do that?” Eiffel asked. “She honestly seems pretty cool. I mean, I’m not sure how she convinced Min...kowski to let us smoke, but I’m honestly impressed.”

“Mn, nearly dying multiple times will really help your relationship with someone. Wouldn’t recommend, though, the side affects are _not_ worth it.”

There was another pause, and Doug could tell Eiffel was working himself up to ask something.

“She...knows about Anne.”

“...Yeah.” 

Eiffel took a shaky breath. “...How?”

“Saw some files of some sort, the prison records. Tried to ignore it for about a month before confronting me.” He admitted. 

“And?”

“She understands that isn’t me- isn’t _us_ anymore. Beyond that...it didn’t come up much.”

Eiffel let out a choked sob. “That’s _it_? She doesn’t- I’ve been so-“

“Heh...yeah.” Doug smiled. “I’m not sure what I did to deserve her. And listen, you want my advice? Just- talk to her. She was mostly mad that I wasn’t the one to tell her. Just- tell her.” 

“I- yeah. Okay.” Eiffel breathed. “Okay.”

“Can you bring air back to the room, Hera?” Doug asked, and there was a hiss of air. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Commander?” Came a crackling voice from the ceiling. Renée looked up.

“Yes, Hera?” A faint smile grew on her face at the technically still correct title.

“Who’s Anne?” She could hear the forbidden curiosity in her voice. 

“She’s…” Renée hesitated for a minute. “...Someone who I’m not in a place to talk about.”

Hera was obviously upset by this answer. “Well, whoever she is, Eiffel’s-”

The doorframe hissed, and both Eiffel and Doug spilled out, each with a relatively somber look. 

“Everything okay?” She asked the pair.

“Fine.” Both of them responded. Eiffel looked down at the ground. 

“I’m gonna go- yeah.” He shot Doug a look too quick to be registered and floated down the hall.

Doug, seeing Eiffel was gone, broke out in a shiteating grin.

“Uh oh. What disaster are you planning now?” Renée asked, because nothing good can come out of that look. 

“I,” Doug announced, “On a technicality, outrank Minkowski.”

“What? Since when? And when do you care about ranks, anyways?”

“Since Kepler made me his second in command for some dick move on Hilbert, and if we’re operating on the terms that he’s still the higher officer-”

“You’re still over us.” Renée finished. “Huh, yeah. I guess you do. Weird.”

“I think you mean amazing.” Doug smiled again. “I don’t think I’ll tell Minkowski- she’s stressed enough.”

“I think she’d implode.” Renée snorted. “But anyway, you and Eiffel have a good talk?”

Doug sighed. “Or something, Commander. Or something.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!


End file.
